While this question isn’t particularly gunny, Marines have been known to carry guns. And use then quite effectively. But the USMC is no longer “The few, the proud, the Marines.” So what should their new slogan be? Whatever it is, the Internet should decide. Obviously.

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117 COMMENTS

      • You don’t have to pretend, but the first few/proud SEALs were NAVY Underwater Demolition personnel drawn from . . .

        No, you didn’t guess it.

        THE U.S. NAVY SEABEES ! ! ! HOOOOOORAAAAH ! ! !

        And the SEABEES follow the Marines around like dogs, we don’t give a F what their slogan is.

        Ours is: “Construimus Batuimus” “WE BUILD, WE FIGHT”

        What did you have in mind?

      • Naw, AFAIK they go through normal Navy boot camp. It’s actually not as easy as people would think. Certainly not the Chairforce daycare center. BUDS, however, is supposed to be brutal. That being said, a lot of people confuse good at sneaking around and not getting shot for good at actually fighting and killing the enemy. Two very different skill sets.

    • Somewhere a Vietnamese veteran is laughing at that.

      How about:

      “We’re inclusionary to other genders and women. We are a proud open and tolerant group that accepts all combatants.

      • You’re confusing the US Army failures in Vietnam for Marine operations. If you look at the way the two services handled the parts of the country they were responsible for, they couldn’t be more different.

        • +1. Marines took the valuable counter-insurgency experience picked up in Nicaragua and applied it to Vietnam a la the highly successful Combined Action Program.

        • Mention Combined Action Platoon (CAP) Marines in Vietnam? I was one, and the Small Wars Manual was our Bible.

        • The big difference was the focus on the operational mentality of the USMC and US Army in Vietnam. The USMC was focused on controlling territory and forcing the vietcong out of the are by developing relationships with the locals. The Army was fighting the vietcong as if they were an army that could be located with “search and destroy” sweeps and eventually defeated. We all know how well the latter strategy works against a local insurgency.

  3. The few the proud the badass motherf*uckers who will haunt you worst nightmares if you piss one off.

    Think that about covers it.

    • Me too! Sometimes(like now) I just like to shake the tree hard to see what falls out of it. Frankly, I expected a whole lot more incoming than this. I’m kinda disappointed. Usually I can rile people way up. I must be losing my touch…

  10. Go old school for today’s special snowflakes; “we never promised you a rose garden” and add “or a safe space”.

  14. “Killing our enemies and defiling their civilizations since 1775.” would get my vote as the “clean version acceptable to the general public”.

    Other slogans already exist but they’re not acceptable to the public.

  17. I’m Army,

    Marines: Carpeting for bad beaches.

    Marines: Go where Artillery fears to tread.

    Stomps foot: Marine Mine detector.

    To all of us: Guaranteed to go in, No Guarantee to come back

    Could be worse, we could have been Navy.

  18. US Marine Corps – When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight.

    Heard this from an Marine several years ago.

  21. I’ve been told by jarheads young and old that the unofficial motto is “Every Marine a Handyman,” due to the creative jerry-rigging of broken things that naturally spawns from low funding.

  23. “Rough men who guarantee you can sleep safely tonight”

    I go back to the “The Marine Corps Builds Men” and “We don’t promise you a rose garden.” Those work for me, too.

    But hows about “Oversexed Underpaid Teenage Killers” (I was one in 1968)
    or
    “No better friend, no worse enemy”. That kind of says it all. Thank Saint Mattis of Quantico (patron saint of chaos) for that one.

    Semper Fi!

    • Why is the change in recruiting slogan needed. I dunno. “The Few, The Proud” worked outstandingly well for about 30 years. The Marine Corps has a brilliant advertising agency that dreams these things up, but it’s been a long time, you know? So maybe they’ve been lobbying for a change in recruiting slogans. Or maybe some officer at Marine Corps Recruiting Command had a brainstorm. I don’t know. I do know that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t need to be fixed, and I can’t see much utility in replacing a slogan that has worked so well for so long.

  27. The Marines: Who is serving for your son today?

    The Marines: We have been doing so much with so little for so long, we can do anything with nothing forever!

    • As a friend of mine, a former captain, used to say, “We get every one else’s hand-me-downs.” (Reminds me of a song, “Secondhand Rose”).

      • It wasn’t until the Reagan era the Marines started to get new equipment ahead of the other services and previously had to make do with the Army’s hand-me-downs.

        In WW2 the Marines were still using M1917 MGs, Brodie helmets, and bolt-action rifles years after the Army were using the lighter air-cooled M1919 MGs, M1 helmets, and M1 Garands (although the latter could have been also from resistance by old Marines who didn’t believe a semi-auto rifle was better than a bolt-action until proven).

        I remember a similar slogan to someone else’s:

        “When it has to be absolutely positively killed overnight!”

        from me:

        “Who answers when America calls 911?”

        and from a retired Marine I know:

        “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children”

  33. “We’re so redundant, we use three helicopters to haul one president.”

    Seriously I have great respect for all of our armed forces and see no reason to change the slogan, unless something so simple and so profound as “The few, the proud” is simply not understood by today’s recruiting pool.

  34. The Marine Corps Version of Genesis 1

    In the beginning was the word, and the word was God.

    In the beginning was God, and all else was darkness and void, and without form. So God created the heavens and the Earth. He created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, so that light might pierce the darkness. The Earth, God divided between the land and the sea, and these he filled with many assorted creatures.

    And the dark, salty, slimy creatures that inhabited the murky depths of the oceans, God called sailors. And He dressed them accordingly. They had little trousers that looked like bells at the bottom. And their shirts had cute little flaps on them to hide the hickeys on their necks. He also gave them long sideburns and shabby looking beards. God nicknamed them “squids” and banished them to a lifetime at sea, so that normal folks would not have to associate with them. To further identify these unloved creatures, He called them “petty” and “commodore” instead of titles worthy of red-blooded men.

    And the flaky creatures of the land, God called soldiers. And with a twinkle in His eye, and a sense of humor that only He could have, God made their trousers too short and their covers too large. He also made their pockets oversized, so that they may warm their hands. And to adorn their uniforms, God gave them badges in quantities that only a dime store owner could appreciate. And He gave them emblems and crests… and all sorts of shiny things that glittered…and devices that dangled. (When you are God you tend to get carried away.)

    On the 6th day, He thought about creating some air creatures for which he designed a Greyhound bus driver’s uniform, especially for Air Force flyboys. But He discarded the idea during the first week, and it was not until years later that some apostles resurrected this theme and established what we now know as the “Wild-Blue-Yonder Wonders.”

    And on the 7th day, as you know, God rested.

    But on the 8th day, at 0730, God looked down upon the earth and was not happy. No, God was not happy! So He thought about His labors, and in His divine wisdom God created a divine creature. And this He called Marine. And these Marines, who God had created in His own image, were to be of the air, and of the land, and of the sea. And these He gave many wonderful uniforms. Some were green; some were blue with red trim. And in the early days, some were even a beautiful tan. He gave them practical fighting uniforms, so that they could wage war against the forces of Satan and evil. He gave them service uniforms for their daily work and training. And He gave them evening and dress uniforms… sharp and stylish, handsome things… so that they might promenade with their ladies on Saturday night and impress the hell out of everybody! He even gave them swords, so that people who were not impressed could be dealt with accordingly. And at the end of the 8th day, God looked down upon the earth and saw that it was good. But was God happy? No! God was still not happy! Because in the course of His labors, He had forgotten one thing: He did not have a Marine uniform for himself. He thought about it, and thought about it, and finally God satisfied Himself in knowing that, well… not everybody can be a Marine!

    Semper Fi from a prior Semper Paratus

    And the motto, just go with Semper Fi.

  35. Only got a 15 on the ASVAB? That’s Good enough for us… and good enough for America!! (Eagle Screeching sound effect, Cue Guitar riff)

  38. “Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don’t want the truth, because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like “honor”, “code”, “loyalty”. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!”

    Might be a little long for a T-shirt…

  39. How about “The Marines, Where Women and Transgenders Now Fight for Us.”

    I think it’s catchy and very PC.

  42. NEWS FLASH!! Our slogan never changed. The Brass is just considering run some commercials without a tagline at the end.

    • Don’t forget… Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children….or, Uniform Shit and Mass Confusion

      Safety Note: Only Marines can say these things. All others will be in deep kimchee if they do…

      Semper Fi!

  52. A couple in use already (privately) among Marines:

    “Marines – First to go, last to know.”

    “Marines – The Men’s Department of the Navy.”

    🙂

  55. The Navy stood on the right of the throne of God. The Army stood on the left. Kneeling at Gods feet were the Marines and mules.

    God said unto the Navy and the Army, “I will toss this golden coin in the air. Who wins the toss will have choice of the Marines or the mules.”

    The Army won the toss and promptly chose the mules. Leaving the Marines for the Navy.

    In the fullness of time the Army replaced the mules with motor vehicles.

    The Navy still has the Marines. And they are still pissed at God for denying best 2 out of 3.

  56. Marines: All the crayons and paste you can eat, join today. Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential….

    I kid, I kid.

  62. How about something that highlights the mental capacities of the Marines, like ‘Crayon Eaters Incorporated’, or something that highlights their delicate nature, and understanding of a sensitive mission, like ‘Surgery with a Sledgehammer’
    I feel either of those sum up the Marine Corp nicely…

    • You must be thinking of the Navy…all their urinals have signs that say, “Please don’t eat the big white mints”!

  63. “The Marines. We’re trying to be less stoopider that we used to be.”

    They won’t take kids with just s GED anymore. I try to help troubled young men get their stuff together. A lot of those kids have nothing. I mean nothing. Many are smart and in tip top physical condition. Perfect candidates for the Marines for those kids that want to be a Marine. Especially if they’ve had a relative that served in the Marines. It’s a big motivator for them. Before the election the Marines required a 15 College Credits with a GED. I was helping a kid with only a GED that scored a 79 on the ASVAB. That’s a darned high score. Marines wouldn’t take him. He went Army and got a great job as well as going straight in to Ranger school right off the bat. He gets to kick in teeth and jump out of Airplanes, so he’s good to go. But the Marines GED policy is stupid.

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